I often receive requests for guidance on how to create a syllabus from scratch, particularly for literature-based courses. Most of my courses are tailored to specific contexts—for business students or individual learners—but designing syllabi centered around literature is especially rewarding. The complex worlds that novels offer open up endless opportunities for exploration, making the learning experience far more engaging. Read more
Many of my students come to me specifically to improve their speaking skills, for fluency, pronunciation, confidence, or for particular scenarios. I particularly like working with literature as students can speak about characters and events outside their own experience, this helps many students who lack confidence in speaking about themselves. Read more
When studying a text, it can be challenging to decide which grammatical structures to focus on. This often depends on the level of the course. Some teachers I’ve spoken to feel it’s reductionist to tackle grammar in texts, arguing for a more ‘Language Arts’ approach. I disagree. The beauty of using texts with students lies in studying language in context—all aspects of language, including grammar. Also, it’s important to work with students’ (and parents) expectations. Read more
We usually have at least one film night during a homestay course. It can really take the pressure off having to entertain for the evening, especially good with children and teens. But it can be difficult finding films that will suit family and students. Read more
When you’re hosting homestay students, it can be difficult to engage the whole household in conversation, especially if your students are lower levels, particularly in the first few days. I tend to find there’s some dead time after dinner, rainy days and long journeys when everyone is gathered together and conversation can be difficult.
Here are some games we’ve used. The title of each game links to instructions. The language areas specified give an indication of lexical and grammatical areas practiced in the games, but these aren’t classes – the aim should be communication and fun, rather than accuracy. Read more
NOTE: This ‘game’ has grown organically over the years as various teachers have made observations & contributions (I don’t claim sole authorship).
The Life Game is my favourite ‘getting to know you’ type activity because it:
I’ve recently been working with a non-native English speaking English teacher from Spain on a home stay English refresher course. She’s taught English to adults for many years in a language college but in September will be teaching High School students. Like most of us who’ve become comfortable with a certain age group, she’s feeling some trepidation. We had a lot of conversations about teaching teenagers.